U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) recently signed on as a co-sponsor of legislation that will stop the practice of torturing animals at research facilities run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Earlier this year, The New York Times published a report that uncovered a Nebraska research facility, operated by the USDA, subjecting live farm animals to torturous experiments in an effort to bolster their meat production.
“Torturing animals is abhorrent and must not be allowed to continue because of a legal technicality.” Buchanan, a longtime champion of animal welfare, said. “This sickening enterprise must end.”
The Animal Welfare Act, passed in 1966, made abuses on most animals a federal crime. A loophole in that legislation, however, exempted farm animals such as cows, pigs and sheep from the legal protections against animal cruelty. As a result, research centers such as the one in Nebraska have been permitted to torture these animals by doing gruesome experiments, such as locking them in steam chambers until they die. The report states that more than 6,000 animals have been killed at the Nebraska facility alone.
The bill, originally presented by Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), would close the loophole, outlawing the abuse on all types of animals. It has garnered support from both Matthew Bershadker, president and CEO of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States.